Sweeter than a honey bee

“Queen Bee” started life as an instrumental — Taj Mahal fingerpicking in the manner of Mississippi John Hurt, warm and unhurried — before the words arrived and turned it into one of the gentlest love songs in his catalogue. It closes out Señor Blues, the 1997 album that won him the Grammy for best contemporary blues record, and it sounds like it was written on a porch and never left it.

There’s no drama in it, and that’s the charm. The guitar rocks back and forth like a chair, and Taj sings his devotion in the plainest terms he can find: “sweeter than a honey bee — oh, my queen bee.” He’s been returning to it ever since, on stages and in living-room sessions, and it works everywhere. Some songs you analyse; this one you just sit near, like a warm stove.